Title: Ensnared

Author: A.G Howard

E-book edition, 384 pages

Published: January 6th, 2015

Publisher: Amulet books

4,5/5 stars

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world--a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that's gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

Finally, after being a lovesick girl in Unhinged, Alyssa the Badass Netherling Queen is back! She finally accepts her netherling side, and acts like one, sometimes even cross to her dark, twisted part. She uses her nether side to manipulate and get what she wants. She uses what Morpheus's had taught her and her Wonderland experience to deal with the netherling. And yes, she is still indecisive about Jeb and Morpheus, but mostly it's about "how to save them" instead of "who should I choose". In this book,her main focus is how to save her mother, Jeb, Morpheus and Wonderland. She acts like a true netherling queen that cares about her realm and her people.

Morpheus. He's still the dark, sexy, arrogant and manipulative Morpheus we knew. But in this book, we could see him working together with Jeb and eventually, respects him. We can see her soft side for Alyssa. But, he's still the master of manipulation, we never can guess his intentions and motives. But one thing for sure, he truly cares for Wonderland. Wonderland will forever and always be his priority.

"I do what's best for Wonderland"

"You are Wonderland"

 “If you’ll but be mine, your heart will forever be sheltered in my care. Yes, we will quarrel incessantly and fight for dominance. And yes, there will be ravishes of passion, but there will also be gentle lulls. That is who we are together. You’ll never need fear that your love is not reciprocated."

Jeb. He is not as annoying as he was in the previous books. Maybe because in the previous books he's just a normal human, so he doesn't understand how Wonderland works, the chaos and madness within the magic, and how intoxicating it is. And then in this book, his magic is mixed from Morpheus and Red, two of Wonderland most powerful creatures. It unleashed his dark side, but it also made him understand the chaos and madness. He even almost lost his mind trying to control the magic. It also made him understand more about the way netherling thinks and that made him willing to coorperate with Morpheus. We can also see that's he's not the naive, jealous human boy because he figured it out from the beginning that his powers are from Red and Morpheus.

World building: Solid and other worldy. Just like the previous books, A.G Howard provides very details description about Wonderland, that it's easy to imagine that we're in the world ourselves.

The ending is perfect for this trilogy, even though it's very similar with Clockwork Princess. I don't really like Jeb, but after reading this book and see his thoughts, I feel like he deserves Alyssa too. The epilouge is just perfect.

"And there, in the midst of blinding orange, yellow, and white flames, our forever begins."

If you're looking for a retellings, especially Alice in Wonderland retelling, this book is worth the try. It potrays wonderland in it's own dark twisted way.